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The Herald And The Lantern

Thursday, August 23,1*1*

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Ever wonder what our beachfront looked like back before men built on it? A pretty good example is provided by a visit to the Ocean Crest Park at the extreme jfSut’h end of

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ocean towards the bay, you will cross the beach, then travel through the rolling sand dunes area, including a primary dune, a secondary dune, and a trough in between. In that undeveloped setting, there is a constant give and take of sand among the dunes, the beach itself, and even the ocean surf zone, evidence that all three "zones” are actually just parts of a total beach system. And very importantly, it is that natural sand movement among all three parts of the total beach lystem that is the key to maintaining a relatively constant or stable shoreline. Let’s take a look at the cyclical give and take of sand, and how beachfront development has broken up the beach system, interfered with the sand give and take, and has led to beach instability

and erosion.

During the cold weather months ocean storms send relatively large, steep waves crashing onto the Jersey Shore. These waves scour and erode sand - from the dunes and beach and deposit the sand offshore, forming sandbars. With the smaller waves of late spring and summer this process is reversed and sand i£ gradually pushed from the sandbars back onto the beach. And on certain occasions, overwash occurs during storms as waves push sand through the dunes to the middle of the island. Dune grass soon cpkmtTw those new sand deposits, shifting the dune line landward. Beachfront property owners know that the wind moves a lot of sand as well; back and forth between the dunes and the beach and also from the beach and dunes into front yards and

city streets.

As was mentioned previously, in a natural beach setting these sand movements from the surf zone, to the beach, into dunes, etc., are all interconnected. Sure, summer’s waves will push sand from offshore sandbars onto the beach, but sand must also be washed or blown up into back beach areas and dunes and stored there. Then during a storm, there is extra sand to help the sunbathing beach area "weather the storm" or to be blown back to renourish the beach once the storm is over. Unfortunately, by bulldozing sand dunes and paving beaches in order to construct oceanfront houses, boardwalks, stores and motels, we have eliqjinated one or sometimes two parts of the total beach system, destroying the sand balance within that system. As a result, at many of the Jersey Shore’s beaches we can only hope that summer’s gentle waves return all of the sand moved offshore the previous winter, and more often than not we have

By Stephen Gabriel

Staff Assistant

City of Ocean City come out on the short end

of that stick.

To add insult to injury, we have constructed timber bulkheads and toncrete seawalls to protect properties from storm damage, but they can actualfy cause more beach erosion. As waves strike the rigid, vertical barriers, much df the wave energy i§ /deflected downward land concentrated at tpe foot of the barrier scouring the eroding sairo away from the beach in front. Historically, the barrier islands on which towns like Ocean City or Avalon are located have migrated slowly toward the mainland and continue to do so. Evidence that hundreds of years ago salt marsh once stood where our beaches are now located is revealed during winter storms when beach erosion uncovers deposits of salt marsh peat underneath the sand layers.

Faced with an ever-rising sea level ( in New Jersey, sea level has risen .014 feet per year since 1012) and constantly battered by ocean storms, barrier islands have rolled with the punches, experiencing shoreline adjustments and a slow overall migration toward the mainland. And the natural processes of sand give the take, and sfhrm overwash are instrumental in this barrier island fight for survival. So, in an undisturbed state, the barrier island beaches are flexible and able to adapt to the ocean forces. However, by hardening the shoreline with development in the dunes and back beach area, we have eliminated that flexibility and destroyed the sand balance within the total beach system. Shoreline retreat due only to rising sea level has been 5 feet every 10 years. But from 1962-1972, Ocean City has experienced shoreline retreat due to all causes an average of 4.6 feet per year or 46 feet every 10 years. It appears that in the battle to retain our beaches, the major opponent is not the ocean so much as it is our continued oceanfront development.

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